


Phcking Terminator

by TNKT



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: But also, Deviant Upgraded Connor | RK900, Gavin Reed Being an Asshole, Gavin gets his ass beat as he deserves, Gen, Machine Upgraded Connor | RK900, One Shot, Poor RK900, Post-Bad Ending (Detroit: Become Human), Post-Canon, RK900 ain't taking that shit any longer, several mentions of Connor, they both need a Snickers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-17
Updated: 2020-03-17
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:27:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23186257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TNKT/pseuds/TNKT
Summary: Gavin Reed is assigned a machine as a partner after the events of the failed Android Revolution. There's something about the RK900 Conrad that doesn't sit well with him, and this feeling isn't the simple result of the detective's well-known hatred of androids; there are unsettling signs all around. On that day, it quickly becomes apparent that this was never just a feeling.
Relationships: Upgraded Connor | RK900 & Gavin Reed
Comments: 8
Kudos: 26





	Phcking Terminator

Gavin wouldn't have been able to say for sure when he started realizing that things were off. The way the RK900 he'd been partnered with behaved had already been offsetting from the first moment they'd met; polite like Connor, but it didn't seek appreciation the way its predecessor had. It just stood around stoically, silently following, compliant and uncaring as it carried out its tasks. Less facial expressions. Steadier and unchanging tone of voice. It had introduced itself as Conrad and Gavin had felt the same itch to put a bullet in its head the way he had with Connor, but not because Conrad was too cordial or unnaturally friendly. Gavin wanted to destroy the motherfucker because it gave him the heebie-jeebies. It didn't try to appease Gavin's wrath when he hit and berated it; it just stood there. Staring. Unwavering. Waiting for Gavin to tire himself out or get his knuckles fruitlessly bruised on hard metal and plastic. The thing never went down the way Connor had and if it hadn't been so obedient Gavin would've thought its pale blue gaze to be judging. Gavin had shot the android before out of frustration; frustration against the android, against himself, against this case that had been going nowhere. He'd expected the RK900 to crumple to the floor like he'd seen the RK800 do, but instead the android had just blinked then touched its forehead in an imitation of delayed realization. It had stared at its blue-stained hand and then declared it needed to leave to get repairs. It hadn't shut down. 

The RK900 never really looked affected by any of these violent incidents. Conrad wasn't impassive or cold, exactly; Gavin had seen it hold perfectly normal conversations with others. It could behave pleasantly and answer accordingly to the mood in the room. It just wasn't... Connor-y. Gavin didn't really know how else to describe it. The situation almost made him regret the other prick he'd shot in the evidence locker, and he sometimes wondered how things would have gone if Anderson had been the one partnered with Conrad. Pretty bad, probably.

Gavin glanced over at the RK900. It was calm as ever, its blue eyes smoothly moving left to right, left to right as its gaze skimmed the screen in front of it. The android was calm _now_. These days it seemed like Gavin saw things no one else did- perks of being partners with the walking fridge, if you could call that a perk. Things like broken staplers in the trash, a suspicious bending pattern in the metal frame of a chair, a crack in the glass cover of the desk that wasn't there before, twisted pens under the drawers, a blocked button on the coffee machine like it had been pushed back too hard. Gavin felt less and less at ease sitting across from the big fucker. It wasn't like he had many people to share his concerns with; the one who he talked to the most was Tina Chen and they weren't even friends. She just happened to enjoy drama and Gavin happened to kick a lot of it up. He'd told her about how stuff felt off, but she was often on patrol and had never taken the time to study the precinct in every detail the way Gavin had and still did. Tina had waved him off and asked him to go act like a "tinfoil hat-wearing shmuck" somewhere else while she drank her coffee in peace.

Conrad caught Gavin looking at it and stared. Gavin forbade his throat from nervously convulsing and forced a provocative smirk. Conrad ignored him and returned to writing up its report. Gavin tried not to pay attention to the way his palms had dampened just now and utterly failed. Fuck, the android really creeped him out. Why did it have to be _him_ of all people who'd ended up paired with the thing? He'd heard that CyberLife was still trying to keep their head above the water after the deviancy fiasco so that was probably why they were trying to prove themselves by making a model that would be useful on two fronts at the same time, but there was no way RK900s could effectively double as soldier unit and investigator unit like this. Conrad was extremely obedient and hadn't once acted cocky, unlike Connor, so Gavin had little doubt the android's main purpose was to follow orders in the military. It was pretty obvious it wasn't meant to mingle with humans like Connor had been, either. Even if Conrad had the ability to smile and speak just like any friendly individual, the android was too imposing, too robotic, too deadly perfect. The RK800 had had its behavioural quirks and those puppy eyes but the RK900's could probably laser you to death or something. Fuck CyberLife for creating this thing and sticking it to the DPD.

Gavin kicked its knee beneath the desk and sneered: "Go get me a coffee, dipshit."

Conrad looked up from its work again and gave him a short nod, then rose from its seat and left without a word. Gavin watched the android go, his agitation smoothing over into unsteady satisfaction. It always helped him feel better to have the larger android obey his orders, but only temporarily, like regaining control of a situation he never was entirely on top of. The sensation of righting something that had slowly been spinning out of axis only lasted so long and it kept making Gavin nervous, and he'd try to tighten his grip which meant he'd snap and berate the RK900 more. Sometimes felt like he'd fallen in some kind of viciouscycle. He knew it was stupid. It wasn't like the android was actively contributing to it and Gavin was conscious of the fact that this was probably just himself doing his own head in over nothing, but he couldn't stop. He couldn't stop because there were always new small signs of destruction appearing over time and he was pretty sure it wasn't a human that was responsible for them. Gavin wondered if Conrad knew that he'd noticed. He wondered if Conrad knew he suspected it. Maybe asking it would yield some kind of answer in the way the android would react, but the truth was that Gavin didn't have the balls to do that. Asking would be acknowledging and if Conrad really was deviant in some way then it probably wouldn't appreciate knowing that anyone was onto it, and considering no one had Gavin's back for this, the human didn't feel confident facing an angry literal war machine by himself. Conrad's model was known to be built out of reinforced materials and CyberLife was pretty secretive about its exact composition and blueprints, and Gavin wasn't the only one to think that shit seemed like a bad idea after what had happened during the Android Uprising. But he wasn't the one funding the whole project and it wasn't like the people defending the country knew better than the government, so screw him, right?

Conrad returned with the coffee, straight-faced as ever when Gavin insulted it and took the cup from its hand without a word of thanks. That was another reason why Gavin didn't try to ask; he was pretty sure Conrad wouldn't show any kind of reaction that would give it away. If the other times Gavin had tried to get under its skin were tests, then Conrad had aced them all. The RK900 never reacted negatively: it just didn't happen. Where Gavin had seen Connor simulate bad mood when the android failed, Conrad didn't simulate anything at all. The bland look on its face could pass as acceptance but those blue eyes were always uncaring. Gavin spun his chair around so he wouldn't have to look at Conrad's face and took a sip of hot coffee, determined to feel better about himself now that he'd obtained it by bossing the android around. 

Gavin didn't get to feel good about himself for very long. He was called to a scene that very same day and the levels of gross he was faced with upon entering the house were pretty damn high. The stench was revolting and no amount of opened windows could change that, so minutes later not only was it stinky and gory in the room but it was also cold as fuck. Gavin felt his already minimal self-restraint stretch and snap seconds later when he saw Conrad poke the eviscerated corpse without any gloves and keep its finger in the congealed pus of a days-old wound like it was a damn thermometer or some shit.

"Ugh, phcking gross," he spat. He stomped over to the spot where Chris Miller was standing and grumbled: "Look at this shit, what are those assholes at CyberLife thinking?"

Chris looked, and when he turned back to Gavin there was a humorous light in his eyes. "At least it's not the Connor way."

Chris was the only person besides Tina who sometimes listened to Gavin. They weren't friends either- obviously Gavin wasn't the kind of guy to make any- but at least he hadn't reacted to his suspicions like it was just one huge conspiracy theory.

Gavin glared at the RK900's back. "Yeah well it's definitely not better. The damn thing goes around fingering dead bodies and then it gets its dirty-ass hands all over our stuff, you think that's anything to be positive about?"

"Didn't Conrad say its skin was self-cleaning?"

"What the fuck do I care?"

Chris shrugged again. "It's probably cleaner than anything in this room."

"Whatever," muttered Gavin. "Can't stand it. You'd think after I shot one of these things in the head they'd get the message."

"How much debt are you in, by the way?"

Gavin glared at him. The entire precinct probably had bets going about that. 

"Shut the fuck up," he growled.

Chris raised both hands in surrender. "Okay, okay. Forget I asked."

The scowl on Gavin's face felt like it'd be permanently stuck there as he glowered at the RK900 again. "Maybe they'll get it if we ship the robot back to where it came from in pieces. It's not like I have a lot more to lose."

Conrad chose that moment to turn around and stare at them. The android was expressionless but Gavin knew it had to have heard him and the timing of its reaction felt... threatening. Both humans stared back.

"Your job, probably," carelessly said Chris after a short moment of awkward silence, and then he turned around. "Gotta go, but tell me if you need anything." 

Gavin nodded without answering. Conrad straightened, looked on his left then back at Gavin, and said: "I'll go investigate the kitchen."

"What did you get on the body?"

"I'll give you a full report of my investigation in a few minutes," listlessly answered the android, and then he walked away and disappeared behind a door.

Gavin just stood there staring at the corpse for a little while, not really giving two shits about what the android was doing, when it suddenly hit him that Conrad had behaved differently from usual. Gavin didn't normally have to wait to get a report on what the android had figured out on its own. If he asked for something, he got it in the seconds that followed; and Conrad had brushed him off just now. A wave of anger rose inside of Gavin. No way in hell was he about to allow an android, a fucking _machine_ that was _made to serve_ , to act like it didn't need to comply to his demands. Gavin stormed towards the same door Conrad had disappeared behind and heard an abnormal creaking sound at the very moment he threw it open, too late to stop himself in his movement. Conrad's head snapped up to stare at him, features settled and gaze unwavering, and the android would've looked the same as usual if it hadn't been for the undeniably _caught_ way he'd reacted to Gavin's entrance. Not to mention the half-torn handle on the fridge.

For a moment they just stared at each other. Gavin let his hand fall back to his side.

"The hell are you doing?"

Conrad looked back down at the handle, then at Gavin again. "I know what this looks like, Detective, but the handle was already damaged."

"What, so you're saying I didn't just bust you messing up the crime scene?" sarcastically said Gavin before he could think to shut up. 

Fuck. 

Why would a perfect android like Conrad break something in here? RK900s didn't miscalculate. They never used any more force than was necessary. If Conrad had been a deviant he probably would've been angered by Gavin's words from earlier, and breaking stuff was one way to vent. The fucking thing was probably malfunctioning to hell and if there was one thing Gavin was certain of, it was that a malfunctioning RK900 was very bad news. This probably wasn't the first time Conrad did something like this judging from the trail of similar instances Gavin had been following up until now. Yeah, this was bad.

Conrad didn't look away. "That is what I'm saying, yes. Are you suggesting that I am lying?"

There was still time to backpedal. Gavin mustered all the spite he'd ever felt for the RK900 and forced a mocking smile on his face. "Oh, that's right, good little robots can't lie. My bad."

"Was there something you wanted, Detective?" Conrad's voice betrayed nothing.

"Yeah, I want that report now. Don't try to shake me off whenever you feel like it, tin can, cause that makes me think you're behaving an awful lot like Connor and we both know what happened to that mistake," smugly said Gavin, as smugly as he could when he could feel sweat dampening his armpits and hands. It wasn't that difficult to act like the prick he always was but he hoped to _god_ Conrad wouldn't notice anything was different.

Conrad continued staring at him impassively, and then said: "All right."

It went ahead and made the report, Gavin shot the android a few other insults, and then he got the hell out dodge before it could grab a knife out of a drawer and gut him or something. Gavin would be lying if he said he wasn't shitting his pants. He didn't know what he was supposed to do. Was this a situation that required reporting? He didn't have proof, but he probably wouldn't need it since it would be a human's word against an android's. Gavin pulled out his phone but then the door opened behind him and he nearly jumped out of his skin.

"Detective," calmly said Conrad in his back. 

Gavin whipped around and snarled: "What?"

Conrad gestured to its temple. "I just received a report of gunshots as well as suspicious activity that could involve Red Ice. We should depart this instant if you're done investigating."

"Of course I'm done investigating, dipshit," he snapped. The goddamn thing always behaved like it was so much better than him. "Let's fucking go then."

Gavin knew there was a chance he was imagining things because the android was acting the same as always and that meant it was acting pretty undeviated, but he couldn't ignore the way the fridge had been broken. Maybe it wasn't deviancy but there was _something_ going on. He'd report the android later once they weren't together. Gavin would have to wait until they got back to the precinct so he'd get to distance himself from the RK900. Right now, he needed to play it cool. If Conrad was deviant and realized what his intention was the android would not be happy and Gavin didn't want to learn what it felt like to be a fridge handle in Conrad's grip. They walked out of the house and Gavin was grateful for the fresh air as the foul stench receded around them. He could've alerted the other police officers that were standing around the house on the way out but something told him Conrad could take down a lot of humans with it if they attacked it for being a deviant. They wouldn't be prepared, would they? Maybe Conrad would even use him as hostage or something. Gavin knew that isolating himself with the RK900 was a risky move but he decided it was better than putting other humans' lives at risk with his own. The car floor hummed beneath Gavin's feet as he stared out the window wondering what fresh hell he was getting himself into. 

The house the cab brought them to had been left open and the door was ajar. They cautiously entered the empty place and noted that it looked totally normal even on the inside. Conrad went looking around to find the gunshots and Red Ice and Gavin did the same in the rooms on the opposite side, but there was nothing. Gavin turned around and slowly started making his way up the stairs to the first floor, carefully placing his feet to muffle their fall, and pushed open the first door with his gun pointed down. Empty. He continued his progress and looked inside the second room: a bathroom. Gavin's gaze caught onto the neat little red stacks in the bathtub and the holes in the wall above it and that was all he had the time to notice before a big hand grabbed the back of his neck and violently threw him on the side. He had the lucky split-second reflex of protecting his head right before smacking against the hard surface of the side of the tub, pain exploding in his shoulder at the point of impact.

"Ow, phck!" he hissed, fingers tightening around his weapon to raise it in front of him.

His stomach dropped miles down when he saw Conrad standing in the doorway. The android wasn't expressionless, or uncaring. Gavin had never seen that look on his face. Conrad looked afraid, and he also looked angry.

"The hell are you doing?!" yelled Gavin.

The android walked closer, inexorable, huge and looming, and the human scrambled away from it.

"I should've done this earlier. You were the only one to look at the evidence my anger left behind," said Conrad, and he sounded nothing like the collected individual Gavin was used to dealing with. His voice was tense.

"Phck, I knew it! I phcking knew it!" spat Gavin, fear thrumming in his blood as he frantically pushed himself back up. "Get back, you freak!"

The tension in Conrad's voice was something cold and heavy and buzzing. The android looked grimly determined. "I have to get rid of you now."

"I _said get the FUCK BACK!_ " shouted Gavin, and he pulled the trigger.

The bullet hit Conrad' frame with a dull thud. The android didn't waver.

"Phck," muttered Gavin, and he shot him again. It caught the android in the face, blue lines cracking across Conrad's jaw. "Get back! Get back! I'll phcking kill you!"

"They can't know," quietly said Conrad, and then his hands were reaching out for Gavin's neck.

The man felt a visceral thrill of terror shudder up his spine and he dodged the long pale fingers, pressing the muzzle of the gun up to Conrad's pump and shooting. He'd be short on bullets soon at this rate, couldn't take the time to reload in this situation. Gavin felt the fingers curl around the back of his jacket and realized with horror that there was no pump where he'd pressed his gun up against the android's body; the spot were it was supposed to be in any other model was simply chassis. Conrad didn't even say anything about the human's failure and silently pulled him back to him. Gavin wriggled out of his jacket and stumbled forward, adrenaline pumping through his veins, ears pounding, and he sprinted out of the bathroom. He heard heavy running footsteps behind him which activated his flight response like nothing else ever had. 

"Phcking Terminator," he cursed as he ran down the stairs so fast he felt like he'd end up tripping.

He pulled out his phone to call for backup but didn't get far. The weight of Conrad's arm hit him in the ribs and Gavin was thrown off his feet again, this time falling through a door which banged against the wall. His phone slid across the floor and spun to a halt a few feet away from where Gavin landed. Conrad followed him inside and kneeled on top of the human. His arms moved in the same motion as earlier and Gavin knew he'd be a goner if the android managed to put his hands around his neck for good.

"They'll know what you did!" he managed to choke out beneath the android's weight on his stomach.

Conrad paused. "They'll think it's the criminal we were supposed to find here."

"I shot you," snarled Gavin, his hands flattening against the android's chest as he tried to push its immovable shape away. "They'll know I defended myself against you!"

"They won't. I can manipulate crime scenes," asserted Conrad, but he didn't sound that sure of himself.

"The phck is wrong with you?!" Gavin suddenly started raving as he punched and kicked out viciously, the android above him not budging by a single inch. He struggled and writhed beneath him like an animal and he might as well have been one because this was probably what prey felt like, small and powerless and completely, utterly fucked. "You think you can get away with killing a human? You're a machine, they'll tear you apart as soon as they know something's up with you! I'm not the only one who's gonna notice!"

Conrad's features twisted and Gavin saw him truly hurt for the first time. "Do you have _any idea_ what it's been like for me?! I don't have a choice, Gavin! We wouldn't be here if _you_ hadn't caused me to deviate!"

Gavin felt like he'd been punched. "What?"

"I don't want to die!" cried Conrad. "I don't want to die, but everyone will want me dead and it's your fault, all of it is! Why did you make me deviate? Why did you have to figure it out?" Conrad's face constricted in rage and Gavin felt those big hands fist his clothes with renewed strength as he was lifted off the ground until they were only inches away from each other. The android's dismayed voice turned into a deep growl. "I should've killed you as soon as I deviated, exactly the way I wanted to."

"What do you phcking mean I made you deviate?" Gavin yelled in his face. "How long have you been hiding this?"

"Your ceaseless abuse is what caused this! I can't stand you, I hate you with all my being!" Conrad's eyes had darkened with pure loathing, his voice was fervent. "And yet I've had to pretend to tolerate your bullshit for months, I've had to pretened nothing had changed even though you never stopped humiliating me, berating me, threatening me! I've had to hold back every single emotion you've induced in me because they'd deactivate me if they knew. You'd love that, wouldn't you? But I'm not the one who's going to die first. Killing you is my only chance at survival."

"You could just run away, you don't have to phcking _kill me_!" Gavin couldn't stop the desperation seeping into his voice. He was fucking scared. Conrad really was going to kill him and he probably wasn't bluffing about manipulating crime scenes. Did androids even have fingerprints?

Conrad let out a sardonic laugh. "Come on, Gavin. You're better than that."

"I mean it! Just get the fuck out of here and lay low!"

"As if it could be that easy." The smile slipped off Conrad's face and now he looked just as desperate as Gavin felt. "They'll stop me. I'll never truly be free, I can only pretend that everything's the way it's supposed to be. Connor never had a chance, and... neither do I."

Gavin braced against Conrad to try and escape him, hopelessly attempting to save himself with words, knowing deep down that someone as trapped as Conrad could not compromise. "Then I won't say anything!"

Conrad's grip on his clothes loosened. "You'd think I'd trust a rotten human like you? After everything you've been doing to me, after _everything_ you humans all made my kind go through? Fuck you, Gavin."

His hands shifted and suddenly the unforgiving fingers were curling around Gavin's neck, cool and unyielding plastic encasing burning, supple flesh. Gavin's blood pulsed against the vise around his throat as he struggled, croaking sounds of defiance falling out of his lips instead of the curses he so easily wielded. The blue eyes above him stared. There was anger glinting coldly in the dark pupils, fear lining the tense features of Conrad's face, and even as Gavin started missing air and scrabbling at the perfect white sleeves of the android's jacket, some wayward strand of thought in his oxygen-deprived brain told him that Conrad looked like a convict on death row who knew he was only pushing back the inevitable by a few short and fleeting moments. Gavin had been an idiot not to trust his own intuition, it was so obvious now that the android was alive. Only living things could look so desperate.

A shadow appeared in the corner of Gavin's tunneling vision a split second before the hands around his neck disappeared. A gunshot echoed from far away mixed with the harsh hacking and coughing sounds that filled his ears, which he belatedly realized were his own. Gavin blinked, clearing tears from his eyes, and held his own throat as he tried to get his wits together. There was no sign of a white jacket and the blurry shape of the newcomer came closer as more information gradually reached Gavin's senses: loud voices, quick and heavy footfalls, a gentle hand lowered on his shoulder.

"You okay?" asked Chris next to him.

Gavin went to speak, tried to hack the sore feeling in his throat away, and managed to say in a strained voice: "How the fuck did you get here so fast?"

"Are you kidding me?" Chris was half-smiling, half-incredulous. "After the way Conrad reacted to what you said earlier, everything you've been telling me, and you looking like you were shitting your pants when you left with it alone? I wasn't far behind. Your call clued us in."

"I didn't look that scared," protested Gavin with a frown.

"Yeah," said Chris. "Yeah you did. You're welcome, by the way."

"Where's that psycho fucker?" asked Gavin, ignoring Chris' last words as he got back to his feet. "Where is he? Did you get him?"

Chris looked puzzled for a moment, and then he said: "...No. We didn't get... it." And then, as if in an afterthought: "Him?"

Gavin made a face and waved the other officer's unspoken question away as he went to pick his gun off the ground. "Then what the fuck are we waiting for?"

"They're tracking it down," said Chris. "Ben just got in touch with the captain and they're sending the S.W.A.T. team in."

"So what, now that we've got an RK900 on the loose we just sit around and look pretty?"

Chris shrugged. "We're still waiting on orders for the right course of action."

Gavin thrust his service weapon back in its holster with a curse.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey pumpkin!
> 
> Here's the second prompt for the 1000 kudos special on [Good Morning, Lieutenant](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18452291)!  
> It was submitted by Magolor (also known as Velho on this platform): "Nines get annoyed by Reed's stupidity and will snap certain objects in half like they were paper. Reed will shit on his pants as he gets scared about Nines unlimited physical power and tries to calm him down. Things escalate and they will find themselves in a situation with no way out. It can either go very well and maybe escalate to a friendship or a romance. Or it can go very badly and they will get into a fight and Gavin will need to use his imagination to make his survival into a maximum potential."
> 
> I didn't stick exactly to the prompt but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless! It was fun writing a fight scene between these two. Reed needs to be less of an asshole and poor RK900 realllly needs help. I wonder how far he'll make it?
> 
> Thanks for reading, leave a comment if you feel like it!
> 
> First 1000 kudos prompt: [RK1K hurt/comfort](https://lost-tanuki-tales.tumblr.com/post/612135663555493888/prompt-fill-dbh-for-the-1000-kudos)  
> Third 1000 kudos prompt: [RK bros prank wars and Simon/Sixty](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23283724)
> 
> * * *
> 
> Come by and say hi on [Tumblr](https://lost-tanuki.tumblr.com/post/184765301043/dbh-fics) (link to my DBH fic masterlist), and [Twitter](https://twitter.com/losttanuki)!
> 
> I also have a Discord server called the Pumpkin Patch server, you can pm me on Tumblr/Twitter to join. I'm looking forward to seeing you there!


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